Business owners lose TIF battle

July 03, 2002|By Steve Young.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS — Despite last-minute appeals from business owners in International Plaza, the Village Board Monday created a tax increment financing district near Golf and Arlington Heights Roads that includes the shopping center.

Trustees voted 6-3 for the 35-acre TIF district.

Owners and tenants of International Plaza said their center, a complex catering primarily to northwest suburban Asian communities, does not belong in the district.

Robert Gildo, a lawyer representing the center's owners, said a new appraisal of the center indicated that its fair market value is 3.5 times higher than the appraisal used in a study that supported the TIF district.